As medical marijuana dispensaries make their first appearance in the state, it’s worth remembering a time when prescription alcohol flowed in the cups of Marylanders.

The Prohibition years from 1920-1933 saw a glut of doctor-prescribed alcohol across the United States. None other than famously boozy Winston Churchill carried with him a doctor’s note that allowed him “a minimum” of 250 cubic centimeters of alcohol — around half a pint — following a car accident he suffered in New York.

To get the scrip, a thirsty patient need show symptoms of “anything that you could persuade a doctor you needed alcohol for,” said Francis O’Neill, senior reference librarian at the Maryland Historical Society. The doctor would then fill out a government-issued prescription form and the patient would have their prescription filled at a local pharmacy. Most patients were limited to just one pint per ten days — though perhaps Churchill secured a special exemption. Alcoholism was not such a condition, apparently. A Sun article reported that doctors who treated alcohol-dependent patients were directed to taper them off over the period of four weeks, after which point they would be legally “cured.”

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Catina Smith created Just Call Me Chef to give women running kitchens and businesses more recognition in a predominately male industry.

Catina Smith created Just Call Me Chef to give women running kitchens and businesses more recognition in a predominately male industry.

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Eleven-year-old Jamaria Crump operates the all-things-lemon business, LemonTopia. The pop-up is at Cross Street Market through the end of August. (Anna Muckerman / Baltimore Sun video)

Eleven-year-old Jamaria Crump operates the all-things-lemon business, LemonTopia. The pop-up is at Cross Street Market through the end of August. (Anna Muckerman / Baltimore Sun video)

Though most of the state was already dry by the time Prohibition went into effect, Maryland was the only state in the union that refused to pass a local law enforcing the 18th amendment. The nickname “the free state” became a reference to the willingness of Marylanders to flout the law. This was particularly true in immigrant-rich Baltimore, which O’Neill said was the “citadel of alcohol use.”

And there were few places where prescription alcohol was more popular. A Sun article reported that in 1922, liquor prescriptions averaged one for every three people in the state — and Maryland boasted the highest in per capita consumption of physician-prescribed whiskey. Unlike their counterparts in New York, who might charge up to $8 a pint, Maryland pharmacists didn’t gouge patients. Another article in The Sun reported that medical-grade hooch in Baltimore was cheaper than the bootlegged version — around $2.50 to $3 a pint.